Patsy – Car wreck, head on
collision that could have easily taken her life and yet she survived with a
serious broken ankle which required extensive surgery and a bad sprain on her
other ankle. Both feet are in boots and she cannot put any weight on the
one they operated on for 6 to 8 weeks. But she could have been killed.
It is a miracle and a blessing that she is still here with her family and
friends who she loves to serve.

My Life – I have learned through
my life to recognize the many tender mercies that my Father in Heaven blesses
me with and realize that many of these are miracles.

Elder Falabella – In December
shortly after we received our mission call we received a telephone call from
the Missionary Training Center in Provo regarding language training. We
had been told that our mission would be English speaking and now we receive a
call inviting us to learn Tagalog. We began working with them but were
very concerned about the time they were asking for. You see we are not
retired yet. We are working until we leave on our mission. The
language training asked for 2-4 hours per day in personal study. 1-2
hours per week with a learning coach. 1-2 hours per week with a language
tutor and another 1-2 hours per week with a study buddy. Add that to all
the hours we were working with our business and preparing to leave and there
were not that many hours in a week. However we started out with them and
said we would do the best we could. After a couple of Skype sessions and
some personal study I was in my office one morning when the phone rang.
It was Elder Falabella from the Quorum of Seventy. He is one of the
Seventy that is over the Perpetual Education Fund and Self-Reliance initiative.
He was asking me about our call, how we felt about it, telling me about the
people and the work when all of a sudden he changed the subject and said,
"and don't worry about the language. You can do everything in
English" and then went on with the previous subjects. His phone call
and what he said was an answer to an unasked prayer. Heavenly Father knew
my concern and answered it.

God is a God of miracles.Every day.If you pay attention and consider your life thoughtfully and prayerfully
you will notice that there are many miracles in your own life just as there are
in mine.

Knee
Surgery – A number of years ago I needed to have surgery on my knee.
I was concerned about it and asked my son Allen to give me a blessing. Allen
blessed me and said "you will have no pain" I remember
thinking, you can't say that, there is always some pain with surgery.
However, I had faith in his faith and had no pain. I did not take
even one pain pill because I followed the law and asked for a blessing and
had faith in that blessing..

Cathy and I have had so much
that needed to be done to get ready to serve this mission in the Philippines.We have had 6 months to prepare but we have
not retired yet… we are working until we leave… that makes it difficult to get
everything done that needs to be done.Again, we have exercised our faith, done everything that we could do and
left the rest up to the Lord.Lots of
miracles here, finances, getting things done at work and at home, and
health.We have been healthier than any
time during our life.I do not remember
ever going through a winter without getting a cold or 24 hour flu, but neither of
us has even had a sniffle during the past 6 months.

Financial – Tithing in USAF --
Tithing last 30 years of self-employment, pay first of the month and blessed
with what we needed.-- Debt, Stay out
of debt

Self-Reliance – Budget, first
line of budget is Tithes and offerings, how can that be first when we are asked
to pay 10% of our increase.Because you
exercise faith to pay tithing on what your self-reliance income is and the Lord
will open the windows of heaven as he promises in Malachi 3:10.That is how we have paid our tithing for the
past 30 years and it is true.This is a
principle that we will be teaching to the people in the Philippines who are
striving to become self-reliant.

10 Bring
ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house,
and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord
of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing,
that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

As we have prepared to serve as Self-Reliance Missionaries in the Philippines, we have indeed received many blessing and miracles from our Father in Heaven. As I reflect on the many tender mercies received I am reminded of a scripture.

D&C 84:81 Therefore, take ye no thought for the morrow, for what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, or wherewithal ye shall be clothed.

82 For, consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin; and the kingdoms of the world, in all their glory, are not arrayed like one of these.

83 For your Father, who is in heaven, knoweth that you have need of all these things.

84 Therefore, let the morrow take thought for the things of itself.

85 Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man.

Miracle of
Friends – I would like to take a few minutes and tell you about 4 of my
lifelong friends that have blessed my life.

Most of us
go through life with a handful of really close, lifelong friends.It occurred to me a number of years ago that
each of these friends are all gifts from God to me.

When I was
in the Air Force in Colorado I was asked to be home teacher to George Breakall
and his family.George was not a member
and his wife was only semi active as were their 6 children.I quickly became friends with George and we
have been best friends for over 40 years.I have seen him join the church and take his family to the temple.I have seen many of his grandsons and
granddaughters serve honorable missions.

In 1978 I
got out of the Air Force and moved back to Salt Lake.I then met Dan, another lifelong friend who
has been there for me and my family.We
have shared more experiences together than I could ever list here.Suffice it to say that Dan is family and a
friend who exemplifies the Savior as he has been of service to my family in
ways he may never know.

When we
moved to South Jordan I met Steve.Steve
was not a member of the church and did not have much interest in the
church.We became best friends as we did
everything together from putting in lawns and fences to fixing broken water
pipes in the middle of a cold winter night.We went to dinner together, enjoyed each other’s homes and just became
best friends.Steve was always there to
lend a helping hand with any project I needed help with, and I assure you I
needed a lot of help.Then Steve’s Dad
died.Then the spirit whispered to him
and he knew he needed to become a member of the church.Steve is still providing service to me as he
comes over and visits me in my office several times a week and is always there
to listen when I have a problem and need a friend.

I have many
other friends, many of whom have come to show their support today for our
mission call to serve in the Philippines.All of my friends have touched my heart and made me a better man by
their examples of friendship, kindness, and service.

45 years ago
this month I entered the old Salt Lake City Mission home where the Conference
Center sits today.In those days, that
was the MTC and that is where I met Gary.We were what today would be called MTC companions and we were going to
England to serve as missionaries.We
became best friends as we served our missions in England.That friendship has continued as we have
raised our families together and shared each other’s good times and struggles
for the past 45 years.

16 years ago
Gary and I took our families on a canoe trip down the Green River.We started the trip at Green River Utah and
went to Mineral Bottom, west of Moab.A beautiful
4 day trip of about 68 miles.

Now before I
go further I need to tell you something personal about myself.Many of you will find this hard to believe
but here is my confession.I am a very
stubborn man.When I was a little boy, I
was a very stubborn child.Fortunately I
had a stubborn Mom who knew how to teach me.I have also been blessed with a Heavenly Father that knows me as he knows
each of you.Just as we know our
children and know what they will do in certain circumstances, He knows what I
am likely to do.

Now with that in mind, let’s go back to
the river.On the second day down the
river, the water was very calm, smooth water.About midday most everyone stopped for lunch and to stretch their legs
on a beach.Jessica was sharing a canoe
with me and when we started to shore she cried that the mosquitos were too bad
and said she did not want to go in.So we
floated a little further down the river where we found a place in the shade of
the cliffs and stayed there in the canoe to have our lunch and rest.It was cool there, no bugs and totally calm
so we laid back to take a nap.At some
point I took off my life jacket and used it for a pillow. (Bad idea… more to
come on that subject)We stayed there
about an hour and then took off when everyone else came along. We were bringing
up the rear with Gary right in front of us. Gary realized we were almost to
"River Register" at approximately mile 77.5 where people have written
their names for years and years back to the time of Powell. Gary wanted to stop
and hike to river register so he started yelling at everyone to go to shore.
Everyone was in the middle of the river and had to turn the canoe sideways
across the river and even paddle a bit up stream to get to the shore. I told
Jessica that we should take a more direct approach (bad idea number 2) so we
started to angle directly to the beach.When we got close to shore we saw that there was a big rock sticking out
of the river a little so we tried to get past it on the side away from the
shore but we were way too close to it. When we got to the side of it the
current grabbed our canoe and sucked us sideways and promptly turned the canoe
upside down throwing us out into the water. Remember the life jacket? Well it
was still on the seat right in front of me but no big deal I’m a good swimmer,
I have no shoes on to weigh me down, I have a cotton tee shirt and cotton Dockers
so I can swim easily. Everything is tied in the canoe so again no big deal. My
oar is not tied and is floating right in front of me so I grab it and start
swimming to shore. Jessica is yelling something about my life jacket and is
trying to pull it free from the canoe. All of a sudden I am going down in the
water. That eddy is churning and sucking on the downstream side of that rock
and it wants to take me to the bottom. I am kicking and swimming as hard as I
can but I can’t get my head above water. I manage to get my head up about twice
for quick breaths and as I go down the third time I’m thinking, If I don’t get
up now I am through.

I will
continue this story with Kyle’s account.Kyle is Gary’s youngest son and was only 13 years old at the time.Quote “Well, we had about four to five canoes
and one kayak and we would trade off and on with the kayak.It was my turn in the kayak and we had to
stop at this one stop called Register Rock.There was a rock in the middle of the river that everyone had to go
around and came back into the spot where we wanted to go except Theron.He went in between the rock and us on
shore.He went facing across the river
sideways when he tipped over and didn’t have his life jacket on.At that time I was barely getting to shore
when my dad told me to get out there and help Theron.So I pushed out there and I tried to go up
stream into the eddy, but it was a real strong current.I could see his head bob up and down in the
water so I went over to where he was I couldn’t see him.Then I felt something at the back of the
kayak, I yelled to him to grab on.As I turned
and looked back I saw him hanging on the back so I pulled down into safe water
and over into the bushes.”Close quote.

Now I was
under water when I heard Kyle yell at me to grab on. I reach my hand straight
up and there is the kayak. I grab the back of it and pull myself up out of the
water. I am exhausted and can hardly do anything but hang on. Jessica swims to
me with my life jacket yelling at me to put it on (she is crying). She helps me
get my arms in it and zips it up.

Now after it
is over I am told that Allen was on shore and already took his jacket off to go
hike to register rock. He runs and jumps in after me with no jacket. Luckily
Kyle saved me before Allen had a chance to get sucked into that eddy.

Was I lucky
that day or did God know I was going to be stupid and stubborn.Gary’s wife Lesley yelled at me to put my
life jacket on just a few minutes before the accident.I told her I was a good swimmer and the water
was calm and not to worry.Was I lucky
or did the Lord prepare a 13 year old boy to save me from myself.I am sure that if Kyle had not got to me when
he did I probably would have drowned.

Was I lucky
or was I again blessed with another miracle in my life.

Kyle is the
youngest on the trip, I am the oldest.He is the smallest, I am the largest.What do you think?

I know that
Heavenly Father knew I would do something stupid that day and he helped a 13
year old boy learn to kayak and prepared him to save my life.I heard him clearly tell me to grab on.I didn’t hear anything else but I heard that!

I learned a
lot about life that day.Just as the
water in the River appeared calm and tranquil, it had power beyond my
comprehension.

Our lives
are often like that, things may seem calm on the surface, temptations may look
good on the surface but the dangers are there when we succumb to the
enticements of the adversary.It is
important to learn from our mistakes like this.My daughter Rebecca gave me a bookshelf made from a canoe after this
trip.It stands in the corner of my
family room as a reminder to grab on, wear a life jacket at all times.

I know that
God lives.

I know that
he knows me personally and that he knows you.

I know that
miracles happen every day.I know that
each of us can be the answer to someone’s prayer, that we can be the miracle in
their life.Just as Kyle was not the
biggest or strongest, we don’t need to be either.We just need to be willing to serve.If we pray daily to be the answer to
someone’s prayer then we can be inspired to know who is in need of our
help.When you receive a prompting to do
something for someone, do it.

I have
received so many blessings in my life, so many miracles, so many acts of kindness
and service that I feel blessed to have the opportunity to go to the
Philippines with Cathy to serve.I am so
blessed to have Cathy as my Eternal companion, I want her to know how much I
love her and appreciate all she does for me and our family.

Riley,
Because I have been given much, I too must give.

We must
serve to show our love and appreciation to the Lord Jesus Christ for all the
blessings we have received.

Theron
and I wanted to post the talks that we gave in Sacrament meeting today.I hope you find something that touches your
heart in them.- Cathy

The
Bishop has asked that I speak today on exercising faith and
following the Lord

If we are following the Lord then we must have our hearts and minds
in focus with the Lord’s heart and mind. We know that the Lord’s focus is
upon our eternal rewards and helping all our Father in
Heaven’s children gather again with him. That is God’s plan.The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the path that
leads us to our Heavenly Father.

Are we exercising faith and following the Lord? Are we keeping
our eyes on eternal rewards- or do we sometimes get distracted and focus on
something else?

Have you
heard the story about the archaeologist who was trying to maintain his sense
of direction down a winding river by watching the North Star? He
watched the skies constantly but sometimes the view of the star disappeared
behind the silhouettes of the trees lining the riverbanks, but it always
reappeared shortly. At one bend in the river the star was lost behind the
treetops again. As the boat turned he quickly relocated it and felt
rather proud of his ability to stay oriented. After a minute of watching
it, he realized he was mistaken: he had not relocated the North Star. In fact
it was not even a star at all. He was watching a firefly. How could
he mistake a miniscule firefly for a star of almost infinite brilliance? The
light of the firefly rivaled the star because the fireflies were just a few
feet away and the stars were so distant. There are so many fireflies in the
skies and that is not a bad thing because God created the fireflies. UNLESS we
let them become our compass, directing us to worldly wants and not eternal
goals.

Theron and
I love our family dearly. Our eternal goal is the same as our Father in
Heaven. We want an eternal family. We don’t let much get in the way of
the time we spend with them now, so leaving them for a year and a
half seemed unimaginable. In fact many of you have commented that you
didn’t see Theron and I as ones who would go on a mission because our
family was so close. Everyone thought we wouldn't be able to leave
our children and grandchildren. That however is what gives us the reason
and strength to go. I want you to hear the response of one of our
grandchildren on the day when we received our call. Megan turned 10 last
month. She gave us this card as soon as we opened our letter and read our
mission assignment.

I had Megan read the card that she
had made for us.

“Congratulations!

Dear Future
Missionarys,

I am so glad you
made the choice to go on a mission.You
are a great example to everyone.You are
the best grandparents a girl could ever have.I’m proud of you for serving the Lord.You are going to be the light in peoples world.You are following Jesus’ example which makes
me the happiest child on earth.I will
miss you a lot, I’m sure everyone will.

Love from your
favorite grandchild, Megan”

Now you know HOW we can choose to leave
them and serve the Lord in the Philippines.

There is a scripture in Doctrine andCovenants 31: 3, 5-6. Theron and I have
taken guidance from this scripture. It reads:

3 Lift up your heart and rejoice, for the
hour of your mission is come; and your tongue shall be loosed, and you shall
declare glad tidings of great joy unto this generation.

5 Therefore, thrust in your sickle with all
your soul, and your sins are forgiven you, and you shall be laden with sheaves
upon your back, for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Wherefore, your family
shall live.

6 Behold, verily I say unto you, go from
them only for a little time, and declare my word, and I will prepare a place
for them.

We are told that it is the time for us to
declare our faith in God’s eternal plan, to follow the path of our brother
Jesus Christ and teach his gospel unto this generation.We are told that if we accept this with all
our heart, we will be provided for and our family will be blessed. We will be
blessed with the promise of being an eternal family and that our Father in
Heaven will prepare a place for us in heaven while we do his work here on
earth.It is our privilege to feel the
love Heavenly Father has for us and for our brothers and sisters as we assist
in the work in the Philippines, the work of helping them come to themselves and
more important, to come to God.

Following Jesus Christ’s example of
obedience increases our faith, for how can we be obedient without faith- and
how can we show faith without obedience. We know that obedience is the
first law of heaven. The scriptures teach

“There is a law, irrevocably decreed in
heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are
predicated—And when we obtain any
blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is
predicated.” This is found in the Doctrine and Covenants 130:20-21.

We become converted as a result of our
righteous efforts to follow the Savior. Exercising faith is required for
us to receive our righteous desires. These efforts
include following Jesus Christ. We exercise faith when we are
obedient to the lord’s teachings. Along with the teachings we receive in
church and from the leaders we also are taught by the Holy Spirit.

Are we obedient to the teachings of the
Spirit? Do we follow the promptings when we receive them? Do we even recognize when we receive these promptings?
Back in the middle of September Theron walked into the house, stopped in
the kitchen and firmly announced "I think we should be walking on
the beaches of Fiji teaching the gospel". Something in his voice made me turn and ask
"are you serious?" His answer shocked me even more when he said
"maybe I am". The rest of the day went on with talk of a
mission being the dominant subject of conversation. The spirit was so
strong in our home that day. We left the next morning for a weekend drive
to Colorado. All the way there and all the way back we read the information on
senior missions. We described to each other what we would like to do as
missionaries. When we got to the part on the senior bulletin about the PEF Self
reliance mission we knew that was what we were going to do. It was written out
almost word for word as we had described our desires. After one phone call to
the church office department presiding over missionaries we were on our way.
Theron told the gentleman on the phone why he was calling, including the
phrase of teaching in Fiji. The brother answered by saying we just sent a
couple to Fiji to do that very thing. Again we felt the spirit confirm that
this was what we were to do.

Remember the scripture I said in D&C
31: 3 Lift up your heart and rejoice, for the hour of your mission is
come.We received the confirmation that
we had been prompted by the Spirit and that the Holy Ghost had indeed testified
that the time for us to serve a mission was NOW.

We exercise our faith through prayer and through
sharing our testimonies. We share our testimonies not just through words
but by our actions.We become converted
when we live the gospel and become “doers of the word” by exercising faith,
being obedient, lovingly serving others, and following our Savior’s example.
When we act with integrity and do what we know is right we receive the peace
promised by the Savior as we show Him we are willing to obey and follow Him.

Some may think we are foolish to walk away
from our business years before we are ready to retire, but when we calculated
earthly things on the Lord’s timetable it made perfect sense to go now and let
him take care of us.

President Monson said “The
wisdom of God ofttimes appears as foolishness to men. But the
greatest single lesson we can learn in mortality is that when God speaks and
His children obey, they will always be right.”

If we have been attentive and obedient to the Lord’s teachings
and the admonishments of the Prophets to be debt free and self -reliant then it
is easy to be obedient to the promptings of the spirit when he says “today is
the day”.

I remember Brother Kordsiemon’s answer in response to being asked What is Faith? He said “it is simply hearing and following
the Spirit.If the Spirit tells us to do
something then we should do it because we are prepared to do it. Otherwise the
Spirit would not have told us to do it.”

Let me quote Elder D. Todd Christofferson “As we walk in
obedience to the principles and commandments of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we
enjoy continual flow of blessings promised by God in his Covenant with us.Those blessings provide the resources we need
to act rather than simply be acted upon as we go through life. Obedience gives
us greater control over our lives, greater capacity to come and go, to work and
to create.”Close quote.

President Spencer W.
Kimball taught this concept when he said: “God does notice us, and he watches
over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs.
Therefore, it is vital that we serve each other. We each have a covenant
responsibility to be sensitive to the needs of others and serve as the Savior
did—to reach out, bless, and uplift those around us.”

If we are not willing or cannot recognize that we can be the
answer to someone’s prayers, how will we be willing or able to recognize the
answer to our prayers? President Deiter F Uchdorf says “Often, the answer to our prayer does not come
while we’re on our knees but while we’re on our feet serving the Lord and
serving those around us. Selfless acts of service and consecration refine our
spirits, remove the scales from our spiritual eyes, and open the windows of
heaven. By becoming the answer to someone’s prayer, we often find the answer to
our own.”

Elder
Bednar asked “Can the spiritual strength that results from consistent obedience
to the commandments be given to another person?The clear answer is no!But the
example we set, and the testimonies we share can instill a desire to be
obedient.We have experienced first
-hand that the closer we get to the Lord the more Satan tries to get us to give
up before we get the blessing. The more obedient we are the more we can feel
the love of our Heavenly Father.When we
choose to follow Him, he takes really good care of us.”

At an early age I was taught that I have a Heavenly Father
who knows me and loves me. I came to understand that my prayers are
answered.So when I was older and
started learning the teachings about the restoration of God’s church it was
easy for me to believe that God answered Joseph Smith’s prayer. In believing
that Joseph’s prayer was answered it was easy to believe the Book of
Mormon.I was taught to have faith and
that through obedience to the teachings I would gain knowledge.I can now say I know that the Book of Mormon
is true.I know that Joseph Smith was a
Prophet of God, called to restore the Gospel so that we might receive the
blessings that had been promised in our Fathers presence.I know that our Heavenly Father loves us and
provides guidance for us today just as he did in the days of the Old
Testament.He sends prophets to speak to
us just as he did with his children he loved in ancient times, and he will
continue to bless us and guide us but he will never take away our agency to
choose for ourselves.Each day is an
opportunity for us to show our Love to Our Heavenly Father and His son Jesus
Christ.Through our obedience, our acts
of service, our charity to others we are able to give thanks to them.I know that God is my Father, he loves me and
he wants me to be happy.If I put my
trust in him and keep my focus in line with his of being worthy to attend the
temple and receive the sealing ordinances I will gain the greatest blessing from
God which is eternal life.

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Here’s how it all started.

In the middle of September Theron
walked into the house, stopped in the kitchen and firmly announced "I
think we should be walking on the beaches of Fiji teaching the gospel". Something in
his voice made me turn and ask "are you serious?" His answer shocked
me even more when he said "maybe I am".